• Telegraph article on Vietnam and Quatar reducing US dollar share in foreign exchnage reserves, a quote:

“The Saigon Times said this morning that the State Bank of Vietnam was abandoning the attempt to hold down the Vietnamese currency through heavy purchases of dollars. The policy is causing the economy to overheat, driving up inflation to 8.8pc. […] Vietnam’s central bank said this week that it would move “gradually” to a floating currency. […]

Separately, the gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar announced that it had cut the dollar holdings of its $50bn sovereign wealth fund from 99pc to 40pc, switching into investments in China, Japan, and emerging Asia.

The move is intended to increase long-term returns for future generations, but it can easily be seen as a vote of no confidence in US economic management.”

  • Washington Post article showing that for African people China becomes what America was for Europeans in XIX/early XX century, a quote:

“The idea of China as a symbol of potential prosperity is taking hold, seeping into the consciousness of ordinary Africans and occupying a place that the United States, and to some extent European countries, once claimed.

Around here, the American dream is something quaint and unrealistic, while a new kind of Chinese dream, more pragmatic and attainable, seems ascendant.

“The United States is a nice place to visit,” said Ahmet Mohamet Ali, a trader who had just returned from his first trip to China. “China is a place to do business.”

Besides massive road projects, oil contracts and other deals China has struck across the continent, there are smaller signs that the country is beginning to penetrate African societies.

On Fridays in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, for instance, a reliable line forms at the gates of the Chinese Embassy‘s visa section. In the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, it is relatively easy to find university students heading off to China for business or language courses.”